7 Michael Corner and The Field of Daisies
by ivoryglobe2
Summary: Short stories following real time in the Potterverse, following the career of Michael Corner. 7. It is Results Day, and on a visit to Diagon Alley to buy material for the new term, Michael is forced into a deal with The Ministry that has catastrophic results.


Michael Corner and The Field of Daisies

There was lots of news over the summer, and it was all bad. There was lots of news because Mum had revived her subscription to The Daily Prophet and it was all bad because that was all the Prophet ever wrote about.

Dad's papers didn't seem to be much better but at least Mum and I knew why the news was so bad.

'Seems to be nothing but disaster after disaster,' said Dad. 'It's statistically improbable that all these things should happen all at the same time.'

'Well, sometimes statistics don't tell you everything,' said Mum. She had cast a mild calming charm over him and they had patched up their disagreement. When I got home for the holidays they were on the verge of breaking up, but she told me that it was too dangerous for him to away from her protection. She also told me that it was very hard not being able to tell him about things or what she was doing. He didn't like magic and didn't like the way it could mess with his head.

But he didn't know the half of it. Rumours had spread among the wizarding community that the Death Eaters were targeting the Muggle partners of wizards and witches. The Ministry roundly denied the rumours, which meant that everyone believed them and Mum was very worried about Dad because he would be totally defenceless.

There was a specific cause of tension that morning, so low level bickering was actually quite a welcome light relief.

It was Results Day.

Dad might not have understood too much about magic but, boy, did he understand results. He was Centenary Professor of Economics at the University of Thirsk and his students' results were his bread and butter. He may not have really got his head around the fact that some of our post was delivered by Ione, Mum's pet owl, but he understood why I kept jumping up and looking out of the window.

'Calm down,' he said. 'They won't get here any faster if you keep looking for them.'

'I can see her, said Mum. And I leapt to the window again.

I have never see an owl fly so slowly. I felt I had aged a hundred years before she swept in through the open window and dropped the fat envelopes on Mum's lap before settling on her shoulder to be fed Owl Treats.

Mum gave me the one from Hogwarts without a word.

I was trembling so much that I could hardly open the letter. Why couldn't they have envelopes made of ordinary paper instead of this stupid parchment?

Then it was out, and the words and letters swam in front of my eyes.

Eventually it got through to me. All passes. I felt my shoulders slowly relax from their position round my ears.

Mostly good passes, too. Outstanding in Potions and DADA. Thanks, Harry. Outstanding in Charms, which would please The Proflet, and Divination, which must be a mistake. Of all the subjects that was the one I expected to fail. I made most of it up. Exceeds Expectations in the rest except for Care of Creatures with Acceptable, but that didn't matter as I wasn't going on with that.

I sat back, slightly breathless and closed my eyes.

'Alright?' said Dad.

'Yeah, not bad,' I said.

'Can't think why you were nervous,' he said with a grin.

Mum held her hand out for the letter and scanned it. 'Better than mine,' she said. 'Outstanding in Defence Against the Dark Arts,' she said. 'That's fortunate. Isn't that the one they refused to teach you?'

'Refused to teach you?' said Dad. 'How can they refuse to teach you?'

'We had a new professor,' I said. 'She only wanted to each us basic theory and no practical stuff at all. And it's a practical subject.'

'Blimey, and they accuse us of dumbing down,' said Dad. 'How did you get, I assume Outstanding is the equivalent of an A*?'

'We found a teacher,' I said. 'Potter,' I said to Mum. Dad wouldn't have known who I was talking about.

She nodded slowly. 'I bet he knows what he's doing,' she said. 'Well, we'd better be off to town to get your new stuff.'

'But Mum! Term doesn't start for weeks!'

'Better to get it done before the rush,' she said. 'We can always pop in on our way to King's Cross if we miss something or you get told to buy something stupid like that biting book.' So we Apparated to The Cauldron and, just as Mum was about to spell the wall, a man appeared to step right out of it.

He was tall and thin, and dressed in an old fashioned black suit, shiny with age. He had a long face and a sharp, twitching nose and far too many very pointy looking teeth.

'Michael Corner?' he said in a sort of nasal drone. 'I wonder whether you could spare me a minute of your time.'

'What's this about?' said Mum sharply.

'Ministry business, ma'am,' he said. 'Are you Mr Corner's mother?'

'Yes, and who are you?' she said.

'My name is Norveigicus Flowerberry,' he said. 'I have the honour to work for the Ministry of Magic and I would like to have a private conversation with Mr Corner.

He produced an ID parchment with a photograph that made him look alarmingly ratlike.

'Where do you want to have this 'conversation?' said Mum.

'If he would just come along to our offices,' said Flowerberry. 'Just around the corner, if you will excuse the pun.'

'We're used to them,' said Mum, with a sneer. 'And we are not going to 'your 'office',' she said. 'You can talk to him in a public space. In the Cauldron, if you like. And I'm coming with him.'

'As you wish,' he muttered.

'Can you identify this?' He asked when were settled round a table in the bar. He produced a galleon from his pocket.

'It's a galleon,' I said. I had a sinking feeling that I knew where this was going. 'There are lots of them around.'

'Ah, but this one is rather special,' he said. 'This one has a Proteus Charm on it, and our tests show that it was in your possession when the Charm was last activated.

I didn't answer and kept my face a blank as I could.

'Our information is that these coins were used by an illegal group of students calling themselves Dumbledore's Army,' he said. 'And I suggest that you were part of this group.'

I kept quiet.

'What grade did you get in your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL?' he said.

'He got an Outstanding,' said Mum, bristling.

'I would put it to you that you could not have achieved that grade on the curriculum taught,' he said.

'I work hard,' I said. 'I'm in Ravenclaw. 'Which House were you in?'

He flushed a sort of dirty red. 'That is not germane,' he said. 'Your name is on a list of students that participated in this illegal activity.'

'Then you know I was in the DA,' I said. 'What is all this about?'

'I understand that your husband is a Muggle,' he said to Mum.

'Yes,' she said. 'What of it?'

'Muggle spouses are considered to be particularly at risk in these times,' he said. 'We would be prepared …'

'The Ministry has said that those rumours are untrue,' Mum interrupted him.

'It is true that there have been no incidents yet,' he said. 'But we would be prepared to put special protections in place around your husband if Michael is prepared to do a little bit of work for the Ministry.'

'What sort of work?' I said.

'We would need to discuss this,' said Mum at the same time.

'In your own time, of course,' he said. 'We would just like you to give us a brief report on Mr Harry Potter's activities over the course of the year.'

'How would I do that?' I said. 'We're in different Houses. Get someone in Gryffindor to spy for you.'

'We don't think that a member of Gryffindor would be prepare to make reports,' he said. 'But you are likely to be in the majority of the same classes for your NEWTs.'

'I don't know if you have seen what happened to the last person to sneak on Harry,' I said. 'Probably not because she's still in St Mungo's, but I saw her and I'm not going to have something like that happening to me.'

'She was infected by a very virulent jinx that was contingent on the disclosure of the said illegal activity,' said Flowerberry. 'You will not be so contaminated so you will be quite safe.'

'Wait here,' Mum told him. 'We're going to have to talk about this.' She beckoned me and we went and sat at one of the tables on the other side of the bar. 'You realise he's threatening Dad,' she said.

'Yeah,' I said. 'He's not very subtle.'

'Can you do it?'

'What? Sneak on a friend?' I said. 'Sure I can. Anyone can. But I'm not going to.'

'I know you don't want to,' she said. 'The thing is, I'm not sure I can protect Dad if they come at him.'

'But what can they do to him?' I said. 'I mean, he's not magical. He's got nothing to do with them.'

'Oh, don't be naïve, Michael,' she said. 'They can do anything they want. And all they need to do is blame it on the Death Eaters. I wouldn't be surprised if they started this rumour to give themselves a bit of leverage.'

I felt cold and breathless at the thought of all the things a wizard could do to a defenceless Muggle. Of course they could do what they liked.

'I'll think of something,' I said heavily. I felt trapped, and as resentful of Mum had forcing me into this as I was of the Ministry putting me into this position in the first place. Protecting Dad was important, but I wasn't about to go sneaking around my friends.

'What sort of protections?' Mum asked when we went back to Flowerberry.

'The standard Ministry protective package,' he said.

'Which is?'

'I have no idea,' he said. 'We have operatives who deliver that sort of service.'

'I'll do it provided that they put the protections in place before the term starts and that they teach me the protections while they are doing it,' I said.

'That will be up to the operatives,' said Flowerberry.

'No teaching, no reporting,' I said.

'No reporting, no protections,' he replied. 'I will expect your reports on days when you are permitted to visit Hogsmeade.'

In the event, two cheerful wizards called Dave and Agamemnon turned up a couple of days later to install the protections and they were very happy to teach me and Mum the spells and how they interlaced. Some of them I knew, like the alarm spell, _cave inimicum_, and some were only recently developed, Agg told us. He was a research wizard on the Ministry's own Security department.

'They're always looking for an edge, you get it?' he said, chewing a piece of straw from a packet he kept tucked in the brim of his hat. ''S only the last few months there's been any actual threat, you get it? 'Over the dunamany years there's be no threat at all, you get it? but they still wanted an edge. Lot of it's on the detectoring side, you get it? rather than yer actual defensive, so we got this super-sophisticated stuff, you get it? that no-one ever used.' Then he taught me how to imbed a Shield Charm that would trigger only when it detected a threat.

'Basically, it's the same charm as you get in Sneakoscopes, you get it?' he said. 'It only activates when it detects a threat, so it's not going to harm the postman.'

He put one in a flower pot positioned so that it would cover the front door. He suggested that I try putting another into a drainpipe to cover the back door and I put so much into it that it nearly knocked him over before it had even been triggered.

'Woow! Stone me,' he said. 'You got some serious welly on you, there,' he said. 'I reckon that'll cover the whole of the back of the house, you get it? Where did you learn to cast like that?'

'I just can, I guess,' I said. 'I didn't learn it.'

'Well, I'll show you how to tuck it in so that it's completely inert when not in use, you get it? then I reckon you can recast the one at the front and you'll be as well protected as anyone I know.'

We put in a _confringo_ field that would stop any Muggle car in its tracks before it could hit the house and Agg created a small, temporary patch of quicksand, with _Arenecro._

'Don't worry about it, you get it?' he said. 'It returns to normal in a few minutes. No change in the surface at all.' He lobbed half a brick into the middle of the quicksand and it sank out of sight in a couple of seconds. The path looked exactly the same as it had.

'Should be set now, you get it?' he said, and I felt the path, which was completely solid.

Dave showed us the Fidelius Charm and how to set up a Secret Keeper, but we decided that it wasn't practical on what was, after all, a Muggle house. So Agg showed me an illusion charm, _campofloris_, that was still under development and created the illusion that the house was actually a field of daises. The only problem was that it could only create an illusion of a field of daises and not anything more appropriate, like, for instance, a different house. By the time we had finished we were about as well protected as we could be and I knew a lot more about static defence that I did before.

I wondered how on earth I was going to get enough credible information that would satisfy Flowerberry but not damage Harry. Flowerberry was waiting for me in Honeydukes because he thought students buying confectionary would make it an inconspicuous meeting place, as he put it. Unfortunately, he stood out like a sugared treasurefruit in a dish of tomatoes.

'He's not doing anything out of the ordinary,' I said. 'But I know he's planning to spend Christmas with the Weasleys.'

Flowerberry nodded. 'Keep your eyes and ears open,' he said. 'We will meet on the next weekend. I will expect more detail.'

And that was it. Except …

'Why were you talking to Norveigicus Flowerberry in Honeydukes?' asked Cho when I brought a butterbeer over to her in the Broomsticks. 'You know he works in the same department as Marietta's mum?'

'I knew he worked at the Ministry,' I said.

'Scumbridge used be their boss,' said Cho. 'I don't know whether she is again now she's back there. What did he want?'

'He wanted to know what Harry was up to,' I said uncomfortably.

'And you told him?'

'I said he was planning to spend Christmas at the Weasleys,' I said. 'He always does, according to Ginny, so they must have known that anyway.

'Well, don't tell them anything else,' she said. 'Why did you speak to him anyway?'

'He threatened my dad,' I said. 'Not directly, but he made it pretty clear.'

'Your dad's a Muggle, isn't he?' said Cho quietly. 'That's a really bastard thing to do. You won't give them anything else, will you, though?'

And then

'What are you going to tell Flowerberry?' she asked as we walked down the lane with rest of students on the next Hogsmeade day.

'I've got nothing I can tell him,' I said. 'Nothing that isn't general knowledge. He slapped a fairly nasty curse on Malfoy and he's getting one-to-one tuition from Dumbledore. Though I doubt Dumbledore taught him the curse.'

'Ginny told me he read it in a book and didn't know what it did,' she said. 'Malfoy was going for _crucio_ so I don't blame Harry for getting in first. I wonder what Dumbledore is teaching him.'

Flowerberry wanted to know the same information but I told him I hadn't a clue and he had to be satisfied. He wasn't.

'More detail,' he said.

'He's going out with Ginny Weasley,' I told him the next time.

'And this is relevant, how?'

I shrugged. 'It's a detail,' I said. 'She's quite a wildcat. I thought you might be interested.'

'We are not interested in the romantic entanglements of students,' he said. 'Are you still meeting as Dumbledore's Army?'

'I don't know,' I said. 'You've got my coin.'

'But your friends were in it,' he said. 'You would have noticed.'

'I haven't heard anything,' I said. 'But then we're being taught properly, with a proper teacher, so there's no need.'

'Ahh,' he breathed. 'Not meeting. That's good.'

And I realised I had told him something that he really wanted to know.

Later that week, Terry came knocking on my door.

'Mike?' he said. 'Are you awake?'

'No.' I said, looking at my watch. 'For crying out loud, Terry, it's one o'clock.'

'Well, wake up, then,' he said. 'There's been an intrusion. Death Eaters have broken in, somehow.'

'What?' I said, fully awake by then. 'Where. How do you know?'

'Haven't you looked at your coin?'

'No,' I said. 'I lost it.'

'Bloody hell!' he said. 'Right. Summons from Hermione. Corridor to the astronomy tower.'

'Who's there?' I said.

'Some of the DA,' he said. 'Mostly the Griffs. And a bunch of Aurors who happened to be around.'

'What about the Huffs?' I said, struggling into my robe. My stomach was churning. All I could think was that I had told Flowerberry that the DA had disbanded. Whatever was going on was my fault.

'No response from them,' he said. 'I'm off to bash on their door to see if I can get a response.'

'Have you got Tony?' I said.

'He's on his way down there. I've got to go.' He ran down the stairs and out of the door and I followed as soon as I had laced up my trainers.

I ran down the corridor and turned the corner at the end into the Long Gallery to find him charging back towards me.

'Two of them,' he panted.

Sure enough, two figures came into sight, paused for a moment and kept on coming. I threw a Stunner at them but I didn't aim properly. They paused again, sniffing, and then came on again.

There was a male and a female, but I guessed they were werewolves because they both had long, matted grey black streaked hair. That and the sniffing. They looked horribly fierce and horribly close. The only spell that came into my head was the field of daisies illusion, _campofloris_, but at least it didn't need aiming.

Instantly, the Gallery vanished and was replaced by a moonlit meadow.

'What the…?' said Terry.

'No time,' I said. 'Move!' and I ran back along the Gallery, running my hand along the wall, which I could feel through the illusion, until I reached the space that was the corridor to the Common Room. I knew that, as far as the chasers were concerned, we had vanished.

The corridor was a field of daisies too, but Muriel's door was standing in the middle of it.

I just prayed that she would open for me and not fart around with her riddles.

The illusion had confused the werewolves, but they had an advantage that we didn't. They could follow our scent. It took them a moment but they was much faster than we were and I could hear them not far behind.

'Muriel!' I shouted, but the door didn't open.

Then her voice said 'Down.'

I dived, dragging Terry with me, and slid along the polished floor as a huge tongue of flame belched out of Muriel's beak.

There were screaming howls of agony from the werewolves. The illusion vanished, and we could see the two figures bundled down on the floor of the corridor. Terry made to get up and check on them but I held his arm. I could see the figures writing and changing and, in a moment, the human figures have been replaced by two huge and very angry wolves. Both had singed hair and burns down their sides.

'How's your shield?' I asked.

'We should attack,' he said. I knew he was better at attack and Stun was his go-to spell.

'You attack,' I said. 'I'll shield.' And I got the shield up just in time as the wolves hurled themselves at us.

They bounced off the shield, then prowled around it, looking for a weakness. One tried to jump over it, but it filled the whole corridor.

Terry tried to cast a Stunner through the shield, but it was almost a disaster and it bounced off on our side ricocheting around, just missing us.

'That's not going to work,' I said. 'On the count of three, I'll drop it. You get the shot off and I'll bring it back again.

'Nice one,' he said. 'Let's go!'

It was nearly another disaster. I had forgotten the werewolves can count and understand speech, so they lunged at us just as the shield dropped. He did get one Stun off and the female fell to the floor. So all we had to do was cope with one very angry werewolf with glowing eyes and terrible breath.

Then another of Agg's spells sprang into my mind. '_Arenecro_!' I said, flicking my wand at the wolf's feet, and the floor of the corridor turned into quicksand.

It was rather horrible to watch, even though the alternative was being torn to bloody shreds. The female was still inert and sank into the floor as we watched. The male realised what was happening and went from snarling aggression to terrified struggling as it slowly disappeared. There was nothing I could have done to save it even if I had wanted to. Agg had said the floor would solidify again quite quickly and the surface would be just as it was before. Which it did. Polished marble stretched in front of us, unblemished.

'Where did you learn that?' whispered Terry.

'Long story,' I said, feeling somewhat shocked myself. I turned and looked at Muriel.

'So,' I said. 'Not just a pretty face.'

She may have been a cast bronze eagle's head, but she still managed to look smug.


End file.
